US close: Stocks end session lower as bond yields come back into focus

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31% at 33,066.96, while the S&P 500 was 0.32% weaker at 3,958.55 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.11% softer at 13,045.39.

The Dow Jones closed 104.41 points lower, reversing gains recorded in the previous session.

Rising bond yields were in focus again on Tuesday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 1.72%, at the top end of its recent range, stoking fears that the recent advance in yields would lead money managers to make significant adjustments in their portfolios, creating heightened volatility during the Easter holiday-shortened week.

As a result of the elevated bond yields, the US dollar hit its highest point since November, while gold slumped to the bottom of its recent range and tested $1,700. Rising bond yields also saw traders exit their positions in high-flying tech shares, sending stock in several of the industry's biggest names into the red on Tuesday.

Uncertainties stemming from the collapse of Archegos Capital, which sold major blocks of stock in the likes of ViacomCBS and Discovery last week, were also still hanging over markets, with Credit Suisse and Nomura both cautioning of "significant" hits to their first-quarter results following the hedge fund's fire sale.

On the macro front, home-price growth sped up to a 15-year high in January as the supply of homes dropped to a new low, with the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rising 11.2% in the year ended 31 January, up from 10.4% annual a month earlier to the highest annual rate of price growth since February 2006.

Elsewhere, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped to a print of 109.7 in March, the highest level since the onset of the pandemic a year ago and up from 90.4 in February but still well below its reading of 132.6 in February 2020.

No major corporate earnings were released on Tuesday.